“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, To the last syllable of recorded time….” You may recognize that line from either the play Macbeth or more recently, it being quoted in the musical Hamilton. Shakespeare’s point, at least in part, is that we’re all a little bit older now than we were last week. Time has a way of doing that.
We know too that our mental sharpness begins to lessen as those years fly past. But there’s increasing evidence that the arts can help us retain at least of little of that sharpness. A recent study from Exeter University in the UK looking at the elderly found that playing an instrument or joining a choir is linked to better memory and thinking skills. In their report Researchers said that “Overall, we think that being musical could be a way of harnessing the brain’s agility and resilience, known as cognitive reserve.”
Those working on the study also noted that there’s lots of evidence that group activities in music can help individuals with dementia. Because of that connection, “group activities in music could be extended as part of a healthy ageing package for older adults to enable them to proactively reduce their risk and to promote brain health.” Don’t think of this as being either more fancy or more formal than it really is. Church choirs, informal vocal ensembles, and even little groups getting together to play tunes on their brass instruments all would count amply as group activities in music. It’s the action itself, and what it does for those who do it.
Caroline Scates, Deputy Director of Development at a dementia nursing charity in the UK has seen all this. She said “Music can provide a valuable form of communication for people living with dementia, including listening to music that the person may have a connection with even in the later stages of the condition. The ability to make or play music – whether by singing or playing an instrument – can continue even when people living with dementia have lost other abilities and means of communication.”
I remember the great Glen Campbell toward the end of his life when he was suffering from Alzheimer’s could still pick up his guitar and play riffs nearly perfectly from years ago
Scates said that “If you know someone living with dementia who enjoys or has enjoyed singing or playing an instrument, it can be beneficial to keep these instruments or sheet music” around for them to play or read.
There are a lot of challenges that confront us later in life, but as it turns out the arts may be able to help us meet some of them.
